The Collaborative to Combat the Illegal Trade in Turtles: Addressing Illegal Wildlife Trade with an Adaptive Socio-Ecological Approach

Illegal wildlife trade is a complex and lucrative transnational crime that involves social, ecological, cultural, political, and economic factors. It is also a significant conservation challenge that can threaten species, ecosystems, and societies. Although illegal wildlife trade negatively impacts various species, many North American turtle populations are exceptionally vulnerable to the removal of wild individuals due to their life history traits. Some of the key challenges to addressing illegal trade in turtles include shortcomings in laws, regulations, and the criminal justice system; insufficient data to understand the issue; and insufficient resources to combat the issue. Herein, we provide a brief characterization of the illegal turtle trade in North America and describe how a grassroots working group, the Collaborative to Combat the Illegal Trade in Turtles (CCITT), formed in response to this urgent conservation crisis. Our collaborative and adaptive socio-ecological approach includes examples and serves as a case study on how wildlife trafficking can be addressed through identifying the need and scope of the problem, building and expanding a network of core partnerships, defining a strategy, and implementing that strategy in an adaptive and iterative way. Looking ahead, we recognize that the CCITT has gaps in representation and, therefore, a need to expand partnerships as well as work towards the full implementation of our strategic plan. While there will never be a "one-size-fits-all" approach to combating illegal wildlife trade, we maintain that sharing approaches, successes, lessons learned, and outcomes with others outside of the immediate area of focus is critical to advance conservation outcomes.